The IT Nerd

Over the last few days, Canadian cell phone users have been overwheming phone lines and filling the retail stores of cell phone carriers in Canada to score a 10GB data plans for $60 a month. The response to this plan has been off the charts. I even got involved in letting people know about this:

#PSA: @Rogers & @Fidomobile have extended their $60/10GB deal until EOB tomorrow. @Telus, @koodo has their version of this deal expiring tomorrow. Take advantage of this while you can. https://t.co/0MdmEhwDmQ

— The IT Nerd (@The_IT_Nerd) December 19, 2017

But the question is why is the response to this so huge? The reason is twofold.

First, Canadian telcos charge Canadians the highest prices for cell phone service on planet Earth as evidenced by this study [Warning: PDF]. While there have been declines in pricing for plans such as low-use mobile plans,  they are still higher than most places on the planet. This of course is not new as Canadians have known that for a while now. But it makes a plan like this $60 a month for 10GB of data appealing to consumers as it’s way better than what most Canadians pay for their cell service. It also highlights that Canadian telcos need to do a much better job in terms of providing value for money as clearly this is not happening.

Another factor is the fact that the CRTC forced teclos to unlock phones for free starting December 1st. So, if you ignore the fact that Canadian telcos won’t be making tons of cash from unlocking phones, and from roaming charges when customers travel overseas, it opens up the possibility that a customer will simply dump one telco for another because with an unlocked phone, they can move at any time. Thus this sort of plan is a defensive move to try and retain customers.

So, which one of these is responsible for the sort of response that we’ve been seeing over the last few days? I think it’s a bit of both actually. Regardless, my advice is that if you’re a cell phone user in Canada, I suggest you take advantage of this offer today as it will send a clear message that Canadians are not happy about what they pay for cell service and are willing to do something about it. Thus telcos have to step up their game if they want to retain customers.

This entry was posted on December 19, 2017 at 8:58 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, wireless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.